Abstract
Drawing on the conceptual framework of symbolic types, the paper analyses a case study of media presentation of the old in Israel. Being a T.V. based fund raising event, the motif of the role of the elderly as dependent, vulnerable and collective social victims was prominent. The paper argues that this symbolic position construction serves to impart cultural attributes to an unidentifiable phenomenon, while exonerating the non-aged viewer from assuming personal responsibility to his/her kith and kin by means of communal moral absolution. It is also maintained that the symbolic type generated helps to create a barrier between the living and the dead.
Similar content being viewed by others
References Cited
Anderson, B. 1972 The Process of Deculturation — Its Dynamics among United States Aged. Anthropological Quarterly 45: 209–216.
Babcock, B. 1980 Reflexivity: Definitions and Discriminations. Semiotica 30:1–14.
Bateson, G. 1972 A Theory of Play Fantasy. In Steps into Ecology of Mind. G. Bateson, pp. 177–93. New York: Ballantine.
Blau-Smith, Z.S. 1973 Old Age in a Changing Society. New York: New Viewpoints.
Burgess, E. 1950 Personal and Social Adjustment in Old Age. In The Aged and Society. M. Derber, ed. Pp. 138–156. Champaign: Industrial Relations Research Association.
Clark, M. and B.G. Anderson 1967 Culture and Aging: An Anthropological Study of Older Americans. Springfield Ill.: Charles Thomas.
Cumming, E. and W.E. Henry 1961 Growing Old: The Process of Disengagement. New York: Basic Books.
Dowd, J.J. 1986 The Old Person as Stranger. In Later Life: The Social Psychology of Aging. V.W. Marshall, ed. Pp. 147–190. Beverley Hills: Sage.
Fontana, A. 1976 The Last Frontier. Beverley Hills: Sage.
Gerfain, P. 1986 Play and the Problem of Knowing in Hamlet: An Excursion into Interpretive Anthropology. In The Anthropology of Experience. V.W. Turner and E.M. Bruner, eds. Pp. 207–238. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Grathoff, R. 1970 The Structure of Social Inconsistencies. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Handelman, D. 1977 Play and Ritual: Complementary Frames of Metacommunication. In It's a Funny Thing Humour. A.J. Chapman and H. Foot, eds. Pp. 185–192. London: Pergamon.
Handelman, D. 1981 The Ritual Clown: Attributes and Affinities. Anthropos 76: 321–370.
Handelman, D. 1985 Charisma, Liminality and Symbolic Types. In Comparative Social Dynamics: Essays in Honor of S.N. Eisenstadt. E. Cohen et al., eds. Boulder: Westview.
Handelman, D. and B. Kapferer 1980 Symbolic Types, Mediation and the Transformation of Ritual Context: Sinhalese Demons and Tewa Clowns. Semiotica 30:41–71.
Klapp, O.E. 1962 Heroes, Villains and Fools: The Changing American Character. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Marshall, V.W. 1979 No Exit: A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective on Aging. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 9:345–358.
Myerhoff, B. 1978 Number Our Days. New York: Dutton.
Rosow, I. 1974 Socialization to Old Age. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Schneider, D. 1968 American Kinship: A Cultural Account. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Simmel, G. 1971 The Stranger. In George Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms. D.N. Levine, ed. Pp. 143–149. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (original work published in 1908).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hazan, H. Victim into sacrifice: The construction of the old as a symbolic type. J Cross-Cultural Gerontol 5, 77–84 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115308
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115308